


frostbite

by suomaa



Category: Naruto
Genre: Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Horror, M/M, Nightmares, Slight Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-16 02:48:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18512341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suomaa/pseuds/suomaa
Summary: naruto has a harrowing encounter with sasuke on his way back from the land of iron. sns.tw for blood, gore, mouth trauma, eye trauma, and body horror.i promise i'm not as much of a freak as this fic implies





	frostbite

it stung to be out here. out here in the cold, where no crickets sang, no leaves remained on the trees for the wind to rasp through, no distant warble of the nightjar cleaved the evening air, out here where silence and solitude were the only things available to grasp at... it easily became a place where warmth, in any sense of the word, was nearing impossible to feel. 

the land of iron was nippy at best during the daytime, but at night, it was a different monster: it was a deep, hateful cold that got into the bones of your fingers and toes and burned your nostrils every time you took a breath in if you weren't dressed for it. it had been days since they started moving and it looked like there would be more days ahead of them, their days filled with grey silence and their nights filled with black chill. 

earlier in the day, when all had fallen quiet between the team as they crunched through the snow and naruto's mind turned his thoughts obsessively over and over, kakashi's broad palm had come to rest upon him. kakashi offered no words of encouragement this time, knowing better than to rub salt in the wound that was the news of sasuke's new assertment as a national threat. there was no comforting way to come at that, so the least he could do was to let his student know that he, and sakura, were there, and cared. in return, naruto offered nothing but a look so unusually void of joy that kakashi slipped his hand away just as quickly as he had cupped it around his shoulder.

"it's best if we try to turn in for tonight,"

kakashi offered quietly. he did have a point: as soon as the sun slipped down past the horizon, the cold became so much more unbearable. traveling at night usually was not an issue, but the konoha-nin weren't acclimated to this kind of weather, no matter how resilient they were.  
"we'lll start out again in the morning. try to keep your chin up, naruto."

clearly, naruto had nothing to say about that. more often than not, kakashi was a welcome source of input and surprising insight, but with how things had been going, he knew little about how everything would pan out. everything was on the table at this point. such news took a toll on all of them, having bonded with sasuke since childhood, and the three of them agreed that this was an issue better dealt with after a good night's rest.

the shelter they had staked out for the night did not help ease naruto's nerves. it was huge, empty, lonely, and even from the outside he could tell that it hadn't been necessarily been shown the love and care it needed to weather conditions like this. usually, this is the kind of thing he would complain about, but the freezing temperatures sapped his energy and the feelings of shock and desperation that sat in his gut like an iron ball kept him from chattering and playing like he usually did. it would have to do for the evening, but naruto wondered to himself if he would even manage to fall asleep at all in regards to how he felt.

sakura and kakashi had taken one side of the shelter, flapping out their bedrolls and tucking in for the night, wordless, before the worst of the chill creeped in. naruto had planned to huddle alongside them, but found that more than anything that he wanted to be alone, and he'd risk a draftier corner if that meant he had even a touch more solitude. he wanted to take one last long look outside, his heart halfway entertaining the hope that this was all a joke and that if he just peeked outside he'd see a throng of his friends coming back to tell him sasuke had been located, placated, and kept safe. naruto knew, though, that the only thing outside was an imminent case of frostbite.

stress pounded at his forehead and pressed into his eyes, but naruto couldn't bring himself to shed tears, if even for a moment of relief. he knew it simply wouldn't do anything. nothing besides sasuke himself could bring him any amount of comfort right now. instead, he pinched the bridge of his nose and kneaded it, hoping to ward off the headache he felt coming on. it would be best right now if he just tried to go to sleep.

as quietly as he could, naruto unfolded his own bedroll and readied himself for an evening he knew would be uncomfortable and lonely. it was warm enough in the singular room that the shelter provided, enough being the key word there, but the sense of loneliness sitting in his stomach was colder and even more senseless than the soulless winds just a wall away. he tucked himself between the folds of his sheets and nudged his elbow under his head, bringing his free hand to nudge beneath his chin. this position he took was the closest thing he could get to comfortable at the moment.

naruto felt almost everything profoundly. that's the way he was. if something ticked him off, he'd be the first to say something, to stamp his foot on the ground and raise his voice and scowl and cross his arms tightly in front of his chest. in times of elation, he had a spring in his step and a cheer to his voice, and he lavished his friends and loved ones with affection and warmth. when he was upset, he felt the warmth leave his body, and would curl into himself, always allowing himself to cry if he needed to. generally, he bounced right back, but the mire in his heart right now was too deep and too cold to shake. he rubbed his thighs together and fluttered his eyelids shut. what he needed right now was to rest, not to keep himself up for hours ruminating over where his friend was and how he could save him. as long as sasuke was alive, he would save him as many times as he needed to. that was his promise to himself. naruto made another quiet, small promise to himself to redouble his efforts into finding sasuke as soon as he woke up in the morning.

it was easier to doze off than he was expecting. he was used to exerting himself all day, but perhaps the trudging through miles of snow and dealing with such a heavy emotional burden wore him out faster than he gave credit for. it was not long before he was sleeping as soundly as his companions on the far side of the room, his hand placed comfortingly on the spiral seal along his stomach. at some point in the night, though, naruto was awoken not by a sound or disturbance, but a creeping chill that apparently had caused him to curl up further into himself as the night wore on. 

even his eyes felt cold as he blinked awake, suddenly alarmingly aware of the lack of warmth that had soothed him to sleep before. it was so cold it felt almost supernatural, like if you spent too long sitting in this it would spirit you away. he tried to act as quietly as he could as he turned his head to look down the glorified corridor that was the shelter, and was perplexed and shocked to see that sakura and kakashi were nowhere to be found. the floor plan was nothing more than a rectangular piece of flooring with walls, so there was nowhere that they could be hiding. unless they had ventured outside?

he sat up. if they had gone outside, they had been discreet about it. there was no evidence that either of them had been there in the first place; the fire pit in the center of the room was clean and unlit, like it had never even been touched at all. neither of their bedrolls or rucksacks remained on the floor. had they... abandoned him? none of this made sense to him. naruto clucked his tongue out of curiosity and partially to see if either of them were there, and ready to answer.

naruto took a moment to gather his jacket from the floor next to him and drew it around himself. they could not have been gone for long, but in the time they had left him, the temperature had dropped to a level not even a shimo-nin should've been able to naturally tolerate. he huddled into the collar of his jacket and took one more look around. maybe there was an emergency or something, but naruto was so confused why they wouldn't have roused him too, or even left a note or anything. he didn't have much time to consider, though, before he heard his name spoken in a cold, firm, familiar voice.

"naruto."

he knew that voice exactly. that was the mature, smooth, masculine voice of his friend, the person he pursued so endlessly, the end to his means and absolutely singular goal. sasuke was speaking to him.

"sasuke?" 

he spoke into the chilled air in a voice only a tick above a breath, nervously watching his breath form clouds of steam in the cold around him. he wasn't aware of how startled he was until he heard the crack in his own voice. he whipped around then, clambering to his feet, his muscles locking in a way that readied himself for combat if necessary. he was singlemindedly devoted to rescuing sasuke, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't have to beat sense into him. words were never the chosen method of communication between the two.

it was then he heard slow footsteps drawing towards him. it was even stranger than hearing sasuke here in the first place, but they seemed to... not be on the same plane. from the point where naruto stood, he could see everything in the shelter despite the permeating darkness. it appeared that he was alone. 

he entertained the thought that he had imagined it, but it sounded so real. that was sasuke's voice. he'd never forget what his voice sounded like... sasuke only spoke up when he needed to, but naruto made sure to write every word he could remember him saying into his memory, savoring his collected tone. it was somewhat of a comfort to think about, in all honesty. naruto swallowed hard and looked to the ceiling, following the soft pad of sandals on wood as the sound drew closer. 

then, a new sound from behind him. it sounded like air being pressed out of a fissure. it only let itself be known for a moment, but that was long enough for naruto to whirl around in its direction, suddenly aware of his heart pounding inside his chest, hard enough to hurt. then there was another dull thud above him, and before he had time to react at all, a dark mass slammed into him from above, knocking all the air from his lungs and forcing him to gulp in air so cold it felt like it would slice his throat open.

on his way down, naruto had slammed his head against the polished wood of the floor and a wretched ache started to pool there. reflexively, he brought his palm to cradle his scalp, hissing in breath out of surprise and ache. he tried to curl his legs up, halfway forming a fetal position, but there was something heavy and thick sitting on his abdomen. naruto felt something like legs settle around him along his sides and he felt ice run through his veins as he realized he was being attacked. his expression pulled back into a snarl, the skin on his nose wrinkling like clay, and he lurched forward, swiping at the figure bearing down on him.

... but nothing happened. he could feel the weight of a body on top of him, but when he reached out to fight, to grab, to do anything, there was nothing there for him to touch. was he going insane? 

naruto did not have much time to elaborate on his thoughts before he felt a firm hand coil around his throat, pressing, and force him back down unto the floor. an agonizing, slow squeeze wrapped around his windpipe and he felt blood thudding behind his eyes and pooling in his cheeks, his breath choppy and desperate. he thrashed, kicking his bedroll every which way, his body screaming out for relief from the crushing force above him. he managed to croak out one word:

"sasuke!"

the fingers around his windpipe paused, then gripped harder, causing his dry throat to wheeze out the last of the air available there. stars gathered at the edge of his vision and he felt his eyelids fluttering madly to keep himself awake and aware. the shape above him shifted slowly, the only sound in the world the creaking of the floorboards beneath them and the subtle shuffle of fabric. then there was one new sound.

"yes... it is i, naruto."

naruto wanted nothing more than to breathe. every cell in his body was begging for oxygen, the slow asphyxiation squeezing out every ounce of energy he thought he had. he tried to lift his hands to scrabble at the arm forcing him down, but it felt as if the rest of his body was kept pinned to the ground with a similarly powerful force. it was unbelievable that this was happening; where were kakashi and sakura to help him? why hadn't he noticed what was going on before it was too late? why was sasuke here, of all places?

without fanfare or explanation, the form above him allowed him some reprieve and finally allowed him to suck in one harsh breath. the fingers curling along his throat loosened and naruto did feel sasuke lift off of his stomach fractionally. he didn't waste his opportunity: he gasped for air, spreading his legs and kicking uselessly one, two, three times before calming himself. his heart felt like it had risen to the back of his mouth and his dry throat made his words come out in a rasp.

"what're you doing?" 

he could barely speak; his words were little more than a wheeze. sasuke, looming above him, his choppy side locks falling to frame his face as he leaned in until there were mere inches between their noses. naruto couldn't tell what was happening in the dark very well, but he swore he could see a smile threatening to form on his friend's lips. instead of an answer, all he got was the gentle sound of metal against fabric, one he had known since before his teens: the scrape of a kunai being removed from its holster.

sasuke's thumb then came up to slide across the juncture of naruto's throat and his chest. naruto noted that there was no warmth at all coming from him... in fact, his touch was icier than the air around them, and it made every hair on his body stand on end. he couldn't shake out what on earth was happening to him. no matter how much he tried to move himself around, it was as if the weight of the ocean was bearing down on him, pinning him in place, and he was helpless to do anything but watch what was playing out before him. 

"i'm giving you one last warning... naruto." 

sasuke's voice was calm, almost conversational. the flat of his palm came around to smooth along his chest, pushing his jumpsuit aside and leaving nothing between their skin except the thin fishnet mesh undershirt he always wore. he gasped harshly as he felt the cool point of a kunai press into his skin, hard enough to sting, but not hard enough to break the skin yet.

"do not come after me. if you do, i will do worse than this."

the pointed tip of the knife pressed hard into his abdomen, shuttering skin from skin, the small incision there beginning to leak his hot blood. sasuke only needed to move fractionally to readjust the blade back into one of the neat squares made by his shirt, and he repeated this pattern, dragging a geometric pattern into naruto's belly, the slices welling with blood and gradually spilling over his sides. naruto felt bile churn in his stomach and ice settle in his throat. he watched with nothing short of terror as sasuke smiled to himself, carving his body as he pleased. the cuts weren't that deep, but to see blood pour out of him so readily and be helpless to do anything about it... he wondered if he was going to die. something dark and foul in him found satisfaction that it might be by sasuke's hand.

"hm," 

sasuke spoke up again, apparently pleased with his work. it had only been a minute or so, but it seemed to naruto like he had spent hours slicing this delicate pattern, as an artisan would spend their time lovingly laying a design on a piece of clothing. he lifted the kunai to naruto's mouth, slipping his free hand around his chin to wrench his adversary's jaw open, and placed the blade squarely into his mouth, then pushed it closed, naruto's tongue frantically pressing hard up against the bluntest side of the blade to push it out. he was making him taste his own blood.

the smell of copper stung his sinuses, and naruto finally allowed himself to cry, hot tears prickling at his squinted eyes as his chest heaved, his heart grappling with his imminent fate. if he only could lift his arms to push him back, he would have a chance. he had lost a lot of blood countless times before, that wasn't what was bothering him: it was the pure malice of the task. something in sasuke had become so twisted that he thought that this was okay. the two often communicated by harming each other, but this was something insidious. poisonous. motivated only by something darker than hate.

sasuke finally removed the kunai from his mouth, making sure to prick him behind his upper set of teeth before he placed his hand on naruto's chest again, just barely above the incisions he had made. if he had put his hand on the skin there, he would have been able to push the squares of skin independently, like scales on a snake. he formed his hand into a fist and pressed the heel of his palm into his breast, his smile widening. something black and thick seeped from the corner of his mouth, dribbling between his fingers. his left eye bulged unnaturally.

"are you afraid i'm going to kill you?"

that wasn't exactly an unexpected question, but naruto found himself reflecting on it all the same. in some way, he had come to peace with the idea that he and sasuke would die by each others' hands... but never like this. out here, in the night, in the dark, alone... he sniffed hard, a guttural moan punching out from his lungs.

"wh... sasuke." 

he could barely bring himself to talk, he was so shuttered by emotion. fear, loneliness, pain, confusion... all of these feelings rolled themselves into a great charred mass of agony that was somehow symbolized by the weight of sasuke's body straddling him. another rasp of a groan escaped him. he felt himself drearily swimming towards an answer--by now, if he wasn't in shock, it was the rapid blood loss and the onset of extreme emotions that kept him from thinking anywhere close to clearly. without warning, sasuke drew his fist back and slammed it into naruto's face, his nose crackling under the icy pressure. naruto felt some of his teeth loosen.

"huh?!" 

sasuke's voice demanded, prickling now with impatience and instigation. as he spoke, flecks of dark fluid spattered over naruto's aching face. sasuke punched him again and smeared the rancid blood across his skin. 

to naruto, it was either now or never. with sasuke, it was always going to be life or death... and if it wasn't his own drive to fulfill his own goals, it was his body deciding for him that it was choosing the former over the latter. every ounce of energy he had he poured into snapping his limbs back up, if only to create a fraction of a diversion so he could do something else. sure enough, although his arms were weak and moved as if they were being forced through liquid concrete, he did manage to press the heels of his palms up against sasuke's chest, quivering with the effort as he pushed him away.

he couldn't tell what was wrong, but there was something unusual under sasuke's white shirt: through the fabric, naruto felt something wet and cold, oozing out as his fingers spread across sasuke's body, away from him. his expression dropped in horror as more blood seeped between his fingers, collecting at his wrist and forming rivulets down his forearms, coated in cold sweat. he was pushing into an open wound. above him, sasuke's grin ever widened, and he lurched forward, bracing naruto on either side with bloodied palms. 

"i'll kill you like i killed my brother," 

he rasped, his voice burbling as if liquid was spilling up his windpipe. he drew in a ragged breath and let out a bark of laughter, menacing, horrible, cruel. "but you, naruto..."

there was a sick squelching sound, a pop, and a thud as something wet and round fell unto naruto's chest. something firm but jellylike... 

"you deserve it."

naruto groaned this time out of absolute terror as he realized that it was sasuke's eye that had fallen out and landed on him, the nerve leaving a coiled trail as it rolled off of him and came to rest on the floor. his breath shuttered in his chest and all the while, blood still seeped from his aching wounds in his abdomen.

"why are you doing this?" 

is all naruto managed. his voice threatened to give out. everything in his body threatened to give out. what he got in response he couldn't even perceive, he was in such great agony, but sasuke's voice came as a devilish hiss.

"because i hate you."

it was then that naruto felt his hands give, the blood dribbling between his fingers giving way to wet, slippery, muscular cords, falling through his fingers and slapping unto him like stones made out of meat. the smell was unbearable; like venom and acid and gunpowder and rotten blood. between the horror, the strain on his body, and and the stink in the air, every breath he took in felt like a fireblast down his throat. the bloody ropes that had fallen unto him coiled around his sides and started making a noise, but he couldn't bear to bring himself to turn his head to look: instead, he was looking straight through sasuke, a roiling, bleeding, ragged hole where his heart should have been. he could look straight through him to the other side and look at the ceiling.

nonetheless, sasuke kept on breathing his evilly joyful breaths, his exposed lung quivering and pouring out more viscous fluid as he did. sasuke felt like a ten-ton weight squeezing every bit of life out of naruto. he did not see his life flash before his eyes, but every interaction with sasuke, no matter how small, flooded his memories and throttled his senses. the hissing of the meaty snakes around him pounded at his eardrums like a waterfall.

"naruto. listen to me."

this was for naught. naruto couldn't even bring himself to objectively process the scenario unfolding before him, let alone pay attention to directions. he wasn't listening, he wasn't thinking, he wasn't doing anything but screaming and sobbing. nothing had ever been colder, more horrible than this. he rolled in the chilled blood pooling at his sides and screamed, shrill and agonized. sasuke's voice was growing more unrecognizable, more like a demonic groan, filtered through the voices of a thousand adders. he offered him one last chuckle, his chest heaving as he did.

"next time you see me,"

his hand snapped back to naruto's throat, squeezing.

"i will ruin everything and everyone you love. sakura, kakashi, the whole leaf village... i'll kill by my own hands."

he gave naruto's throat another rippling pressure, almost playfully.

"then i will come and find you and rip you limb from limb. i'll eat your meat and curse your soul and lay your bones out to dry in the sun."

the shock of matted, black hair drew back as sasuke tipped his chin up, then thrust back down as he spit out a wad of saliva, blood, and a few teeth, clattering right next to naruto's ear. sasuke laughed again.

"then we'll be even."

naruto did not even perceive his words, but the angry serpents around him coiled around his body, rippling around him like an anaconda, squeezing the little life left he had in him out, their hisses louder than anything, infecting his brain with their fury. he choked out a rough cough, followed by a weak exhale. sasuke leaned in and closed his frigid, stinking, wet lips against naruto's, sucking his life out. then, there was nothing but cold, blackness, ache. the pain in every part of his body accelerated to a hellish crescendo and he felt his muscles tearing apart, his organs twisting, his bones fragmentizing. then there was truly nothing.

and then he was awake. there was a comforting silence. his abdomen stung, and his head throbbed with a tight, pressurized headache, but other than that, he was not bleeding, he was not suffocating. he had just woken up. he was still curled between the folds of his bedroll. there was no smell of blood, no scream of a thousand snakes made of muscle and sinew, no crackling in his throat. exhausted, overwhelmed, and horrified, naruto let his eyes dart around the shelter: now it was filled with a dull, blue-grey light, early morning unfolding outdoors and the glow of the sun even before it peeked around the hills to the east filtering through the feet of snow on the ground and around the building. silently, he turned his head to observe sakura and kakashi beginning to stir at the far end. it was not the kind of heat he was used to in the land of fire, but he was glad to feel any kind of warmth again.

the headache thudding on behind his eyes threatened to worsen significantly if he didn't get up and eat and drink soon, but naruto stayed in bed for a moment longer, squeezing his eyes shut, ridding himself of the tears that had collected there. he swiped at his eyes with the back of his sleeve and sniffed again. it appeared as if that whole thing was a dream... but what kind of wretched darkness did he have in his mind that would conjure up something so insidious? it made him want to cry even thinking about it.

his hand slipped beneath the band of his jumpsuit (which was, thankfully, clean and untouched) as he worried there would still be the scalelike incisions sasuke had sliced into him before. his abdomen hurt, and his skin felt cold and tender, but the skin was intact there. he let out a breath he hadn't noticed he was holding and flipped back around to his side, scrubbing his warm palm up and down his face to rouse himself from the last particles of sleep. just a dream, it was; scary, upsetting, but harmless. he would regroup with kakashi and sakura and they would have breakfast and they would soon set out and he could forget all about this.  
naruto placed his hand down flat on the floor beside him so he could push himself up to his feet, starting to notice how hungry and thirsty he was. there was, though, that voice that kept him company in the back of his mind. it was sasuke's gurgling, scraping voice.

"because i hate you."

because i hate you.

because i hate you.

because i hate you, i will kill everyone you love. i will ruin the place you live in. i will eradicate the leaf village. i will destroy you and let your body nourish me so i can continue on.  
words like this, to naruto, were worse than the world's most potent neurotoxin. worse than the venom lurking in the mouth of a snake, worse than the sting of the kunai pressing into his body, worse than the acrid smell of putrid blood. 

from behind him, he thought he heard a low hiss. it could have just as easily been a gust of wind sifting new, loose snow along the crusted snowbanks.


End file.
